A user of a communication system may subscribe to communication services offered by a communication network provider under an agreement that guarantees performance. Examples of performance guarantees include data throughput, or latency bounds, or other similar metrics based on mutually agreed measures of a network protocol. This agreement, which may be known as a Service Level Agreement (SLA), typically contains a defined quality of service.
Different types of network traffic may require a specific quality of service. For example, streaming multimedia, internet protocol (IP), and safety-critical applications, such as remote surgery, each require a specific quality of service or a guaranteed data transfer service. These types of services are called “inelastic,” meaning that they require a certain level of bandwidth to function—if they get more than the required bandwidth they can't use it, and if they get less, they can't function at all. By contrast, “elastic” applications can take advantage of however much or little bandwidth is available.
In order to comply with the SLA, and in order to efficiently distribute required bandwidth among the one or more subscriber stations in a communication network, it is advantageous to monitor, control, and limit bandwidth granted to subscriber stations, both individually and collectively.